Ben Leonard celebrates the digital and the analogue throughout his design work

London-based graphic designer Ben Leonard has just graduated from London College of Communication and is interested in print, digital, identity and type design. His work has a clean, fresh aesthetic and his in-depth approach to each project really impressed us.

Tim Bowditch: Ben Leonard

A stand-out project is his digital typeface Fraction Mono, his final year project in which he developed the face into three different weights and then translated the whole thing into 270 letterpress letters to print with. It’s one of Ben’s favourite projects too: “I went from research to prototypes in a few days, spent a few weeks refining, moved onto producing the letter blocks, then actually printed with them. I rarely get sentimental about anything I work on, but the physical artefacts feel precious to me,” he says.

Ben initially wanted to study photography but ended up switching while on his foundation year. “That’s one thing this foundation is really good for: testing out your interests in quick succession.” The designer’s time at LCC didn’t start off as smoothly as possible: “I didn’t really push myself in first year and was a bit too lazy. There was no dedicated studio space either meaning everyone worked independently, so you never saw anyone else’s work prior to hand-in day,” he explains. Yet after a year of interning and being surrounded by working designers, it sparked Ben’s drive and he was ready to work on his own design again in third year. “I felt a clarity in direction that I was missing prior to the year in industry.”

This clarity is something his tutors encouraged him to work on with regards to the accessibility of his projects. “I learned the work should speak for itself – things that make sense in my own head don’t necessarily do so to other people,” says Ben. Working with his fellow students brought about friendly competition between them all but his peers also provided guidance: “It was really nice to have a core group of people who I trusted to give me honest advice.”

Ben describes his style and approach as a blend of the digital and traditional and he’s constantly trying to balance the two in ways that are more interesting that just focusing on one. “I’m inspired by designers like Eric Hu, who isn’t just designing for web as an afterthought but treating it like its own medium, with its own virtues,” he says. “He described the web as being in its adolescence and that ‘with every new website or digital product that gets produced, a foundation of not only aesthetics but also value is being laid out for the next generation’ – that’s an exciting premise and something I’d like to to be a part of.” Ben hopes to explore this further now he’s graduated and thanks to his time at LCC he’s leaving with a renewed appreciation for core graphic design skills from his final year.

Ben Leonard: Fraction Mono

Ben Leonard: Fraction Mono

Ben Leonard: Fraction Mono

Ben Leonard: Hubble Telescope: 25 Light Years

Ben Leonard: Hubble Telescope: 25 Light Years

Ben Leonard: Hubble Telescope: 25 Light Years

Ben Leonard: Unseen

G . F Smith

It’s Nice That’s Graduates 2016 is kindly supported by G . F Smith, whose gorgeous range of papers and services can be just the thing for new and soon-to-be creative grads. The 130-year-old paper company has a long history of working with designers and artists at all stages of their careers, with its high-quality and innovative paper products offering a huge range of creative possibilities.

Since 2014, G . F Smith has been creating Make Books for projects and portfolios that need a bespoke touch. The hardback books are assembled by experts at the company’s headquarters in Hull and are a stunning example of the brand’s passion for photographic print. To get a deeper insight into the process and the possibilities, we asked some of our 2016 Grads to design and have printed their very own Make Books, all created in just seven days.

As a fresh-faced and eager young graduate, you’ll likely be looking for the best way to get your work out there and in front of as many eyes as possible. You’ve got a glittering portfolio, but do you need an agent too? We spoke to a bunch of creatives, and their opinions varied wildly.

A new crop of graduates are currently taking the first tentative steps in their career at the moment. This transition between the academic and working world is at once exciting and daunting, sometimes it can be easy to forget just what is important at this stage in your professional development. We spoke to a clutch of creatives to ask them to share advice and insight into the things they feel are key to remember at this time.

Unfortunately the thorny issue of working or pitching for free isn’t one that’s going anywhere anytime soon. And while we’re sure everyone would agree that you should get paid for work you do, are there some situations where just for the pure joy of creating, it’s OK to make something for nada? DesignStudio’s executive strategic creative director James Hurst thinks not: “If we agree that beer and drugs are free. Until then, get paid, it is expensive working.”

Maddy Mould is an illustrator with a passion for pattern and print. She has just completed her BA illustration degree at the University of Cumbria and has a portfolio that demonstrates a bold use of colour and enthusiastic experiments with how her style might be applied to different textiles. “After taking fine art at college I was told by my tutor that the work I was making was ‘too illustration-y’. I thought, fine, that’s what I’ll do then,” says Maddy. “I love illustration because it’s all about creating images to be used for everyday things; to go with newspaper articles, or on juice cartons or shopping bags or whatever. It brightens up mundane things and is everywhere.”
Her A5 zine Two Chinas catalogues the juxtapositions between the traditions of the nation and its acceleration to modernity with lively depictions of her experiences. Maddy’s four colour print Roman Menagerie draws inspiration from the Roman heritage of Carlisle and presents them in an impressionist style with a pop colour palette. “I love working with simple geometric shapes, and I’ve found that the majority of my work uses a particular colour palette,” says Maddy. “A lot of the time, my work begins with papercuts and I use this really lovely pack of sugar paper. I learned I work best like this and with these sort of grubby pastel tones. I scan in the papers and collage them digitally – this keeps the texture, something I like to think is visible in my work.”